IGPA provides leadership for Midwest lawmakers’ gathering

Two senior members of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs will be among the leaders for a regional gathering of state legislators July 10-14 in Madison, Wis.

Economist J. Fred Giertz (left) and political scientist James D. Nowlan (right) will lead sessions at the annual Bowhay Institute for Legislative Leadership Development. The five-day meeting, sponsored by the Midwestern Legislative Conference of the Council of State Governments, will be held at the Fluno Center for Executive Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Thirty-seven primarily first-term legislators from the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin, and the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario are expected to attend.

“For the second year, we have designed and are delivering the "capstone" project for the legislators attending this important program, a leadership dialogue centered on Joseph Ellis’ book Founding Fathers,” said IGPA Director Robert F. Rich. “Given our mission of conducting research and active public engagement, participation in this program is extremely important to us; we are honored to be involved.”

Nowlan, a senior fellow at IGPA and a former Illinois legislator himself, will direct the leadership dialogue exercise for the Bowhay fellows over two days of the meeting. This exercise involves an in-depth discussion of Ellis’ book to explore its principles and implications for leadership.

“As with former Illinois state senator Barack Obama, effective state lawmakers often rise to positions of national leadership,” Nowlan said. “Dialogue about how the founders kept our fragile nation together and allowed it to prosper provides today's leaders for tomorrow important perspective on leadership and problem solving."

Giertz, who has been on the IGPA faculty since 1980, will be a co-presenter for a discussion about the effects of the struggling economy on Midwest states. He will be joined on the panel by Richard Mattoon, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

“Financing state government with all its competing demands is difficult in the best of times. During the current recession, state budget problems have become even more acute,” Giertz said. “An understanding of the current economy with its implications for state budget issues is vital in navigating these troubled waters.”

More information about the Bowhay Institute can be found at http://www.csgmidwest.org/About/BILLD.htm.